How do I enter short-term gains on ETF I shares of silver and gold trusts?

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
April 1, 2026
2 replies
82 views

I am confused because 2 brokerages treat the same investments in gold and silver I-shares differently on their 1099 B form. In one case, the short term profits are imported into my 1099 B tax form directly. Yet, the purchase dates are missing. I don't know how to determine these.

The other brokerage states on their 1099-B "SHORT-TERM TRANSACTIONS FOR WHICH BASIS IS MISSING AND NOT REPORTED TO THE IRS. In these case only "Date acquired to Date sold" is listed along with small proceeds. The brokerage states that the information is to be reported on Form 8949 in either Part 1 with Box B checked or Part II.

Each brokerage lists about 35 transactions, each with a value under $3.

I am at loss as to how to proceed. Please advise the steps I need to follow and how I find the missing information such as "date acquired" and "cost basis" to satisfy TT.

Not A Product Question

DianeW777

Level 15

The purchase dates are required to be tracked by you at all times. If you're not sure then you would have to make an educated guess, with reasonable records, to determine if they are held long term or short term. Once you decide this you will know what date to use to create the correct holding period (see below). You can summarize your transactions into one or two entries based on holding period.

Holding Periods:

Long term is a holding period of more than one year (one year plus one day) and receives capital gain tax treatment (0%, 10%, 15%, 20% depending on your regular rate of tax)
Short term is a holding period of one year or less and receives ordinary gain tax treatment (your regular rate)

Funds that invest in precious metals like gold and silver are treated like collectibles for U.S. tax purposes, which means long-term capital gains from those funds will be taxed at a top rate of 28%, compared with a maximum rate of 20% for stocks. Short term gains will be taxed at the ordinary or marginal tax rate for your situation.

IRS Snapshot of Collectibles

TurboTax can handle your collectible sale as you will see next. Review or enter your sales to be sure they are marked as collectibles.

To record your sale/redemption in TurboTax Desktop (non-online version) use the following steps:

Open your TurboTax Return > Search ( upper right) > type collectibles > Click the Jump to... link
Edit beside your Sale or Add More Sales > Continue (or Edit or Review on your gold and silver sale(s) entry)
Enter the information about your sale on the screen 'Tell us about your 'Investment Firm' 1099-B'
Select or confirm Collectibles for the selection 'What type of investment did you sell?'
Enter any other information for this screen then select Continue > Review the next screen and when finished select Continue

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Periwinkle65Author

Level 5

I appreciate the comprehensive answer relevant to SALES of I-shares of gold and silver. My question, however, pertains not to sales but to monthly adjustments which are often just a few cents or dollars. These are reported on 1099-B forms. Since such adjustments are made to pay expenses, they may result in loses and not gains.

I recall asking an IRS agent several years ago how to handle the situation. He stated that the data should be treated as short-term gains. Thus, they would not be taxed as collectibles. If he is correct and this treatment still applies, then providing 1/01/2025 as the date required might be the solution.

I look forward to further information and/or debate.

fanfare

Level 15

the monthly fees on commodity ETFs are ST or LT depending on your instructions given to broker to sell FIFO or LIFO, and when your last purchase or reinvestment of dividends for an ETF happened.

The broker consolidated statement should be telling you the answer :Box B or Box E

The actual acquired date is not needed, the treatment is set by the Box category B or E that you report.

The Acquired date "VARIOUS" is used in this situation.

For simplicity of tax reporting use cost basis of zero on fees.

@Periwinkle65